Hi everyone,

There is no short way to say this other than the subject above.

Please if you have time, do read ! do help me ! I am a student and I seriously need guidance !

I will get right to it,

I have always wanted to be a psychiatrist and a game developer, I never accepted the fact that in order for us to truly feel better and survive our emotional depressions and such, we are forced to meet addicting medications. I have always thought about an alternative, something I can reach that will make people feel better and in the same way addiction-free.

Why a game developer ? In the past I loved programming, till I discontinued multiple games due to the amount of frustrating courses that I have followed, I never had the breath to continue a course that never explains stuff fully.. The moment I felt stupid and incapable I directly stopped, which made me hate programming a bit, I never had anyone to guide me or a decent courses to hop along. When I grew up I realized this was just a big excuse for my failure and that I have to start programming from scratch again but this time without giving up and not for gaming but for something more meaningful towards my goal.

In Egypt which is where I am, according to our High school score "Final year only" also called "Thanawia Amma" we get to choose what fields we can apply to and in what universities.

Psychiatry wasn't there because I got 89,% and it was from 98,5%, I then came to realize that there is another field called Biotechnology. I have realized how close this can be towards my actual goals, since I don't want to spend the rest of my life listening to people's verbal issues more than actually solving them from a lab by eliminating the root cause, Biotechnology had all my wishes. I am meeting face to face with the conductors of hormones, of our behavior maps... DNA !

I get to work closely against the enemy, however the only part of biotechnology that is accessible to me was and which I am in at the moment is "Agriculture Biotechnology"

Now

The thing is in Egypt, we have no quality labs, no quality courses, no Quality teaching. Whoever succeeds either by enrolling in very expensive colleges or intensive online courses. I slacked in my first two years in my Cairo university, I never took what I am doing seriously... I felt hopeless that I am never gonna reach my goal, barely got out with score B of accumulative semesters.

But then recently I came to also realize that there is a field that gets in touch with both biological side and programming side, this is where I am stuck at.

All I want is to help our world become much easier to be in and live happily, I am not a programmer, I am not anything special yet. However my goal is to become something, someone that will change this world.

Every time I ask someone about bioinformatics, they either say

(A)you can either be a biologist mainly with some programming knowledge to help you process the data "This has a flaw !"

I haven't done a practical thing other than stand in labs and do some pi-petting to detect some enzymes, I don't know what type of biological data I would work on and to detect what exactly, so I feel super lost !

(B) You can do software to assist biologists "Sounds cool but not the way I really wanted to live my dream"

Also it is flawed for me in a way because they say you have to be an experienced programmer as for example a graduate from a computer science field, Which I am not and my experience if there will be any in the future will be 1-2 programming language, I am still scared to start... I am afraid that I will get stuck again.

Now both A and B doesn't seem like they would lead me to my goal, or anywhere close to it... so before I start asking questions and end this topic from my side Here are some things you need to know about me.

1. I have self taught my self English. "So this large text wouldn't be here if we are talking about Egyptian Education, I know it's not perfect but it is good enough That I got to use my language to work for multiple companies from Egypt here like : Vodafone UK and Ring company that sell security cams"

2. I am a very stubborn and determined person, If I just come to realize I want something, I would push my self to it everyday because I just don't accept not getting what I want ! That's why I am here, because I want something but I don't know where to start my path in it !

3. I know I look skill less and so on, but if you were to just help me... a little bit of guidance, Iam sure I will appear to be something. (I have tried E-mailing multiple people to assist me or guide, none of them agreed... I even tried contacting MIT where Professor Eric lander taught his courses on Edx, no luck. I tried the professors in my university, but they are more interested in working with students from abroad with actual education than me... "

4. I don't want spoon feeding, I want guidance and answers, I will do the digging... just point out on where !

5. One of the main reasons I am picking bioinformatics, It requires very little to no wet lab, because that is very expensive in Egypt if any was to be found, Besides I am really interested in programming, I even started an Excel course from Microsoft and got my certificate at 95% score, I just love stuff like Excel "I know Excel doesn't relate much to actual programming", where analyzing data,Understanding what is underlying there and figuring out a way to fix it !... That's how I generally love to work !

   1. I am with very limited time, I have 4 semesters left, Then I will have to join an obligatory military service (1-3 years) and I am 20 years old soon at next Jan to be 21.

My options are either (A)

I continue my 4 semesters with both good grades at university and side studying bioinformatics.

OR (B) I find my self a scholarship where I can repeat all semesters but in a place that would guide me right and prepare me truly to the working environment.

OR (C) Same as (A)but I would find my self side projects to work on while studying, and right after the obligatory military service I would just bump out to do my master's and so on !... I am still planning to continue studying either way as a researcher mainly.

NOTE : ( I was accepted in Turkish scholarship2018 fully funded, But the university was in Samsun had a worse education than Cairo "That's what my Turkish friends told me.", So I felt like It's not worth repeating a full year for the same level of education and also in Turkish.. Which is not the language I would want to study in.")

Now my questions "I really appreciate whomever is still reading all of this !"

1. After reading all of this, do you still think Bioinformatics can help me achieve my goal if so then How ?

2. After reading all of this, where do you think I should start ? "I will put some links where one of the professors thought it's a good idea to start (For anyone, not me specifically! Which sounds odd, maybe it's not the best for me to start, as I mentioned above I have very limited time, No place to add something that wouldn't benefit me in anyway"

3. https://www.coursera.org/specializations/genomic-data-science?ranMID=40328&ranEAID=mRETjYz*mIw&ranSiteID=mRETjYz.mIw-cSkOe8kEvUlzng8yXLxJJg&siteID=mRETjYz.mIw-cSkOe8kEvUlzng8yXLxJJg&utm_content=2&utm_medium=partners&utm_source=linkshare&utm_campaign=mRETjYz*mIw

https://www.coursera.org/specializations/bioinformatics?ranMID=40328&ranEAID=mRETjYz*mIw&ranSiteID=mRETjYz.mIw-MiGHStCIh1tiQrJsRynSvQ&siteID=mRETjYz.mIw-MiGHStCIh1tiQrJsRynSvQ&utm_content=2&utm_medium=partners&utm_source=linkshare&utm_campaign=mRETjYz*mIw

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1. Talk to me, tell me what you think generally ! and What would you do if you were me.

LAST QUESTION : Do you think I can change the world from Agricultural biotechnology Bioinformatics ? If so how would I change my goal ? " we study genetics, Microbiology, Biochemistry in details with examples on plants"

Final Note : I am currently trying to apply to Holland Korean Universities maybe I can repeat it all somewhere else, with just a better shot.

All will change depending on just an answer that can guide me !

Thank you !